


Why Not

by Goliathus_Regius



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-19
Updated: 2015-04-19
Packaged: 2018-03-24 18:05:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3778417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goliathus_Regius/pseuds/Goliathus_Regius
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Why not pick up a stranger off the side of the highway? Of course, he had quite a few good reasons. But they aren't enough to stop him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Why Not

**Author's Note:**

> I really wanted to write a cute fic with trans Haru, so here it is.

It probably hadn’t been the greatest idea, he considered, as he watched the man climb in his car. But, then again, Makoto wasn’t really one to turn down someone who needed help.

Even if this person had been hiking along the side of the highway, hair looking greasy and filthy, and clothes clearly unwashed for days.

Still, he didn’t seem homeless, not from the high quality of the shirt (a rather cute one, he saw, with a cartoon dolphin on the front) and red jeans. Unless he’d stolen them...

“Thanks...” they muttered, slamming the door.

“Erm, where exactly do you need to go? I’m heading back to Tokyo, so...”

“Iwatobi,” the man muttered, staring at his lap.

“Huh?” It was hard to make out the word, but... Makoto hoped he had heard wrong. Quite badly.

“I need to go to Iwatobi,” he said again, punctuating the words clearer.

“That’s, erm, quite a drive from here...”

“I know...” The man sighed. “You can  let me out here, I was on my way anyway.”

“What? Really? You were planning on walking all the way there?”

The man eyed his suspiciously, like he were the one who had just had a stranger get in his car. “How’d you know Iwatobi was far from here?”

“I grew up there.”

“Oh.”

Silence, for a moment. Then, Makoto spoke up again.

“Well, I suppose I could drive you there. But, you have to tell me why first.” Fair enough, right? He couldn’t be expected to drive there without at least a reason.

Another dejected sigh. Makoto watched, confused as the man shifted forward in his seat, grabbing the back of his shirt collar. He pulled it off in one swift motion.

“W-what exactly are you...” He looked at the other man, but he offered no explanation, only sat there with a miserable expression.

The man’s toned muscles distracted him for a moment, until he saw the reason that he had stripped in his car.

A curved scar ran along the side of pectoral muscle, prominent and still pink, and the realization ran over Makoto.

“O-oh my god, you’re being abused? W-we have to call t-the cops, or something, I mean-”

The man next to him laughed softly, pulling his dirty shirt back on. “No.”

“What?”

“Don’t worry.” He closed his eyes, leaning back. “It’s nothing like that. It’s a surgery scar.”

_Oh._ Blushing at the embarrassing assumption, he cleared his throat a bit. “So, why exactly was it necessary to show me your surgery scars?”

“Figured it would make explaining the rest a bit easier.”

“And the rest is...”

The third sigh since he’d gotten in the car.

Even if the man had assured him abuse wasn’t playing a role in this situation, Makoto could tell easily there was something very wrong here. Why else would someone be hitchhiking a ride to Iwatobi from right outside of Tokyo?

“Well, I’m a transgender man. I guess I can start there.”

Makoto was vaguely familiar with the term. It was a rare occurrence, someone who was born into the body of one sex, but felt like it should be the one of the opposite. Or, something like that, right?

“And the scars are from when they did surgery on my chest a month or so ago.”

“And...”

“And, it was going fine, until my roommate found out.”

Makoto certainly didn’t like where this was going.

“I was going to Japan’s best college for swimming. Until that bastard ratted me out to everyone.”

Dead silence.

“So... You were getting bullied and decided to run off?”

“Pretty much. Board wouldn’t do anything, it was getting ridiculous, you know.”

Still, the story didn’t quite add up. “So, how’s running off to Iwatobi going to make anything better?”

“I have a friend who spends the summer there.”

“Where exactly were you planning on living?”

“My grandma’s old place.”

Well, at least Makoto could see he wasn’t rushing into it. Or maybe he was, and he was simply a very convincing liar. Seeing as he had known him for all of two minutes, it was a likely option.

Still, he seemed genuine enough, and the tired light in his eyes spoke of someone who didn’t intend to do him any harm.

He was lean, though he was very clearly an athlete, and likely stronger than he appeared. Still, Makoto was quite a bit larger than him. If worse to worse, he could restrain him easily, right?

The man started when Makoto started driving again, pulling off the shoulder of the highway.

“Y-you’re going to take me?”

“Of course. You seem like you could use a hand.”

“T-thank you.”

“No problem.” Of course, it was a problem. He had homework, a thesis that needed revision, his cat to feed, not to mention Nagisa had wanted to go out for dinner with him and Rei tonight.

But, that could wait for a little bit. Or, a day. It was the last day of the workweek, after all. You were allowed to do stupid things on Fridays.

Of course, he probably still would have driven this stranger back to his hometown on any other day of the week. It was just the kind of person Makoto was. _‘Impulsive,’ ‘too kind,’_ Rei had called him. _‘Manipulatable,’_ even.

Perhaps he was making a mistake. But the man next to him, bearing physical scars and likely mental ones alike, seemed like he really needed help. And Makoto could never leave someone who needed help, anything from a kitten to a college student running away from his University.

“You could have just taken a bus or taxi or something.”

“I don’t have much money left.”

“Oh.”

Then, it occurred to him. He didn’t even know this guys name.

“Oh, that’s right. I’m Makoto.”

“Haruka,” the man muttered next to him. “But call me Haru.”

Makoto smiled softly. “Ah, we both have girly names, then.”

“Shut up.”

Perhaps he was simply imagining it, but Makoto thought there was a hint of warmth in the words.

“Alright then. Well, since we have a few hours to ourselves, why don’t you tell me a bit more about yourself, Haru.”

“What more do you need to know?”

“I dunno, just talk. Like this friend, what’s he like?”

“His name’s Rin.”

“And...?”

“He’s like me. We met on the swim team in primary school. He wants to be a swimmer.”

He stopped, like there was no more that needed to be said.

And, perhaps there didn’t. Since Haru clearly wasn’t much of a talker, Makoto took over after that. It was easy for him to open up, rambling on about his siblings, how he was going to school to be a teacher, about his pet cat, about his two closest friends, who’d also grown up in Iwatobi.

And Haru, by all appearances, listened attentively. He didn’t respond much, but every time Makoto glanced at him he fully awake. Perhaps, once or twice, he was almost smiling.

They drove through the night, Makoto and Haru taking turns driving. It was near morning when they arrived at Iwatobi, Haru giving him instructions to where he was planning on staying.

“Umm, hey,” Makoto said shyly, parking the car. “Would you mind if I stayed here today?”

A hint of a smile, the third one Makoto had counted.

“What do you think? You drove me all night, idiot.”

Makoto let himself laugh a bit, following Haru up the steps of the old house. It was pleasant, modest, fitting in well with the look the rest of the village maintained.

The inside, though, was much prettier, walls painted with rich pinks and blues , traditional decorations lining the hallway, photo’s of what Makoto assumed to be Haru’s family standing on small tables.

“She died when I was little, but the family never sold the house. So, I came here when I felt bad...”

“It’s nice.”

Haru shrugged. “It was nicer with her here. I’m gonna go get a shower, you can hang out here for me.”

Makoto nodded, taking a seat on the striped blue couch. The house had a lovely view of the ocean behind it, and he was mesmerised by it while he waited.

He’d forgotten how pretty the ocean was, after being in Tokyo so long. He wished for a moment he could stay here longer than a day. Of course, he needed to get back to Tokyo tomorrow, but still...

Sitting there, there was no way he could have known of the years he and Haru would end up spending in Iwatobi. How he would teach here, finding the perfect job right after finding the perfect partner. How Haru would grow happier and happier with each day that passed by, changing for Makoto when he was around. About the little smiles that would grow to mean so much, importance rising out of meals he had overlooked before.

Of the children they would raise there, the two girls who would mean the world to Makoto and Haru alike.

He might have recoiled a bit at the pain, the fights, too. The thought of Haru giving up being a swimmer to be with him. But he’d know in the end, it was all more than worth it.

Not in that moment, of course. There was no way he could predict what the years following them would hold. He had only met this man, after all

But, perhaps, as he watched Haru emerge from the other room, towel wrapped around his waist and another drying his hair, he felt the gentle stirrings of _something_ deep within his chest.

**Author's Note:**

> Pretty short, but if anyone likes this, I'd by happy to write more like it. Tell me what you think, please!


End file.
